Ad fraud is defined as the deliberate practice of attempting to serve ads that have no potential to ever be viewed by a human user while false reports are often given to the actual advertisers on how many people did in fact see the ad and for what length of time. Many of the clicks to fraudulent ads are often generated by tech software.

• Advertisers need to set clear expectations on what they expect from their partners and encourage open information sharing related to preventing ad fraud.

• Advertisers should avoid runs of exchange buys in favour of databases of safe sites and understand that fraud (and their exposure to it) is not going away.

• Contracts with agencies and publishers need to be in place to ensure that there are clear penalties for misallocating spend to ad fraud related inventory.

Stephan Loerke, the WFA’s chief executive, said: “Advertisers are the sole victim of ad fraud and the WFA wants to equip them with the tools to minimise their exposure. There is much that advertisers can do to improve the situation in terms of setting new standards, contractual changes and increased transparency, but ultimately behaviour change is required across the industry.”

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